From the cover of the DVD, it appears to be a newly released horror film starring The Social Network's Jesse Eisenberg, but anyone renting a copy of Camp Hell may be in for a different kind of shock to the one they shelled out for. The Oscar-nominated actor is suing studio Lionsgate for falsely advertising his small cameo, which he filmed in 2007 as a favour to friends, as a lead role in the low budget movie.

"Although Eisenberg appears onscreen for less than five minutes, the distributors of Camp Hell are now attempting to fraudulently deceive and mislead the public and reap millions of dollars by capitalising on Eisenberg's newfound fame," the suit reads. "Eisenberg's reputation and good will with the public and his fans will be severely harmed if they are duped into purchasing a copy of the Camp Hell DVD as a result of false advertising by defendants that it is a horror film starring Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg's fans and the public should be protected from defendants' fraudulent conduct and false advertising and unfair business practices."

The actor is suing under US publicity rights laws, which ban commercial use of someone's likeness without their prior consent He also alleges unfair business practices.

Camp Hell was titled Camp Hope when it was originally released on DVD in the US last year and appears to have been marketed with a different cover featuring star Will Denton. The new Camp Hell version was released in August, featuring Eisenberg on the front. In the intervening period, the actor had garnered international fame and an Oscar nomination for The Social Network, in which he played Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Camp Hell/Hope centres on a Bible camp in the New Jersey suburbs where demonic forces are at work due to the misguided ministrations of the resident fundamentalist preacher, played by X-Men star Bruce Davidson. It does not appear to have been released to critics, but reader reviews on the reviews aggregator site rottentomatoes.com are less than favourable. "More like 'Camp let's rip people off for a few bucks'," one wrote. "I found no viewing pleasure in this film whatsoever. The premise and storyline were boring and had nothing to do with horror and Jesse Eisenberg was barely in it. I kept watching thinking: 'Okay, any minute now it has to get better. It never happened."